Thursday, February 24, 2011

Hopes fade for New Zealand quake missing

As the grim toll from the Christchurch earthquake carry on to rise, New Zealand's crushed southern city has been rattled by a sequence of aftershocks.

Buildings again shake under the power of unpredictable underground services and for a few seconds walls and windows shudder.

At first there is a rumble like remote thunder before the earth shifts underfoot, and then in a few seconds all is still.

Some of the jolts have deliberate up to magnitude 4.5, far less menacing than Tuesday's quake, which witnesses say made the streets of Christchurch roll and rise like a signal.

But more than 100 aftershocks have made a nervous city even more fearful."Even the little tremors bring back the terror of the big one," said Roger Marshall, 32, who had bring his young family to an migration centre set up at the Burnside High School in Christchurch.

Here on the streets have sought shelter as they swap horrible stories of the day Christchurch distorted forever.

"The house was totally shaken and when we did get outside, the three-storey house crossways the road was just one storey and there's hands and limbs attach out and (people) saying 'help, help, help!'. It was unreal," said Mr Marshall.